Disabled vets find respect under hoods of Humvees

AbilityOne Job Showcases Leadership Skills of Disabled Veteran

By Gisele McAuliffe, contributing feature writer

Billy Foster has an extraordinary memory. He serves as the lead driver for the Skookum wheeled vehicle contract at Fort Lewis, Wash., manages a team of four other subordinate drivers and keeps track of more than 3,000 vehicles.

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Charley began his consulting work with Skookum in 1991, and previously served on the Board of Directors. Charley has been involved with Skookum through all of its iterations, including our early days as a jump rope factory, and later when we procured our first government contract at Indian Island.

In addition to serving as a Financial Advisor for Skookum, Charley owns and operates a private CPA practice, The Business Guides, in Port Townsend. Assisting clients with business profitability, consulting, financial forecasting, budgeting and strategic planning, he works with businesses of all size, ranging from startups to large companies.

Marty Ranalli - Regional Vice President

He developed diverse experience in construction management, capital improvements and planning, and the operations and maintenance of Navy, Marine Corps and Joint Forces facilities and infrastructure as he continued to serve with the Navy in Iraq, Diego Garcia, and Port Hueneme. After separating from active duty he completed a M.S. in Civil & Environmental Engineering from the University of California. For the last five years, Marty lived in Oakland, CA where he worked with Webcor Builders, a commercial construction contractor completing several notable projects such as the SFMoMA and the Apple Visitor Center.

Robert Cordell, P.E. – Regional Vice President

Robert’s passion for public works management was developed during a 20-year Navy career as a Civil Engineer Corps officer. The Navy provides extensive exposure to Public Works, Post-Award Construction Management and contingency engineering. Notable tours included Recruit Training Command, Great Lakes Illinois, Camp David Maryland and Yokosuka Naval Base, Japan. His final tour of duty led him to the Pacific Northwest as the Director of Production Engineering & Facilities, Puget Sound Naval Shipyard, Bremerton Washington. Upon retiring from the Navy, Robert joined Skookum in 2012.

Jessica McLoughlin - Regional Vice President

Jessica provides Home Office coordination in support of Site and Project Managers in Washington, Texas, Virginia, New Mexico, and Pennsylvania. She also administers, prices and negotiates new and current contracts for Skookum.

Before joining Skookum in 2002, Jessica was an Army vehicle maintenance officer at Fort Lewis, WA. Following her medical separation from the Army, she joined Skookum as a Logistics Coordinator at JBLM. She then spent nine years as the JBLM Central Issue Facility Project Manager before being promoted into her current role as a General Manager and Contracts Manager.

Maurice Correia - Vice President, Quality and Safety

Maurice’s role is to direct the overall strategic plan for both the quality and safety programs. Maurice accomplishes this through two managers, Joe Fegurgur & Chris Crittenden. Under these two managers, there are multiple subcontractors and division level quality and safety representatives throughout the country. His major responsibilities include both ISO Certification (Quality & Environmental System) Programs and National (Safety and Environmental Management) Programs company wide.

Melinda Jenks - Chief Manufacturing Officer

Before assuming her current role, Jenks was the COO for CONNECT Supply Chain. As the COO, she was responsible for developing all of the corporation’s manufacturing and service lines of business for CONNECT’s commercial and defense customers.

Before leading CONNECT, Jenks was the Vice President of Defense Programs for Synchronous Aerospace. Jenks was responsible for business development and program management across six manufacturing facilities, providing integrated solutions to Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEM’s) and the Department of Defense (DOD). In this role, Jenks was responsible for ensuring products were delivered to customer’s on-time with the highest level of quality.

Before leading Defense Programs for Synchronous, Jenks was Vice President of Rotorcraft Programs at Synchronous Aerospace where she developed and ran operations for their Rotorcraft Business Unit. There she created and expanded the company’s business base, including creating two depot level facilities, by supporting the US Army in meeting near-term critical requirements.

Jenks worked for Teledyne Brown Engineering and assisted the US Army in developing long term visioning strategies for the defense rotorcraft industry.

Prior to that, Jenks served as a consultant for Accenture, from 1991-1996, where she was a Senior Program Manager for Accenture’s Services Business Line. Jenks worked with Fortune 500 companies to develop leaner business processes to deliver significant impacts to their bottom-line.

She holds a B.S. from The University of Maryland and an M.S. from Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Melinda Jenks holds an absolute commitment to her customers and their business objectives.

Scott Bell, P.E. - Vice President and COO

Scott, a former Naval Officer and Contracting Officer, was also a customer of Skookum in his position with the Navy. As Director of Public Works Scott provided supervision, management, and professional direction to an all-inclusive Public Works Department encompassing three Northwest Naval Installations with a Plant Value of over $2.9 billion spread over 8000 acres comprised of industrial, educational, medical, administrative, retail, and housing facilities. Upon retiring from the Navy, Scott began his journey with Skookum in 2005.

Jeff Dolven, P.E. - President and CEO

Jeff was a customer of Skookum in his position with the Navy. Over the years Jeff experienced first hand the powerful impact Skookum creates in the lives of its employees. This opportunity to make a difference in the lives of people with disabilities drew Jeff to the company when his Naval career came to a close.

Jeff successfully orchestrated a 500% increase in job creation since joining the organization over a decade ago, leading the Company beyond it’s Washington State roots and into new business lines and new geographical regions. Jeff dramatically expanded the integration of Veterans into Skookum’s workforce. Today over one third of the Skookum team are Veterans, and over one quarter of the team are Veterans with Service Related Disabilities.